As Germany’s number of coronavirus cases grows, so do levels of anti-Semitism

The country’s anti-Semitism commissioner said “right-wing radicals have increasingly tried to leverage the coronavirus crisis for their own ends.”

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(JTA) — Germany has seen an increase of anti-Semitism along with the rise in coronavirus cases, the country’s anti-Semitism commissioner said.

“There are direct links between the current spread of the coronavirus and that of anti-Semitism,” Felix Klein said Tuesday in Berlin, the AFP news agency reported. “In recent weeks, right-wing radicals have increasingly tried to leverage the coronavirus crisis for their own ends.”

Klein described one current pandemic conspiracy theory which states that the coronavirus is a failed bioweapon set loose by the Mossad, Israel’s secret service.

He was in the German capital for the launch of a government research project involving several German universities to better understand the causes and manifestations of anti-Semitism.

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